Engine-fuel vaporizer



Apr. 24, i923..

J. GOOD ENGINE FUEL VAPORIZER Filed iOct. 5G 1917 2 Sheets-Shea?l 2 3 num/Lto@ Patented .Apro 24, 1923.

STATES ATENT OFFICE.

`TOEN GOOD, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 GOOD INVENTIONS CO., OF

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK. I

ENGINE-FUEL VAPORIZER.

Application filed OctoberSO, 1917. Serial No. 199,262.

To all wko/mit may concern: Referring to Fig. 1, a charge mixture of 50 Be it known that I, JOHN GOOD, United the liquid fuel and air is measured in the States citizen, residing in Brooklyn, New usual explosive proportions by means of a York, have invented the following decarburetor 1 which may be of any ordinary 5 scribed Improvements in Engine-Fuel type. Under the control of a suitable Va orizers. throttle, which may be disposed at any point 55 he invention concerns the preparation of in the intake passage, this mixture is dethe fuel chargermixtures for internal comlivered into and through a coiled tube or bustion engines and other uses and conhelical passage 3 and thence passes into the sists in the apparatus hereinafter described intake manifold 4 for combustion within whereby liquid fuel may be .Vaporized by the engine. The casing 5, which encloses 60 the a plication of heat and its vapors may the coil 3 is connected to a forced draft be mixed with the air component of the burner-head 6 from which it receives a flame mixture without creating an unduly high or blast of hot combustion products which temperature of the resultant charge such as escape through the pipe 7 at the top of the might entail difliculties arising from the casing or otherwise. The construction of 65 condensation of the vapor Within the engine the burner-head 6 forms no part of the prespassages, or unduly impair the volumetric ent invention and it may be regarded merely efficiency of the engine by reason of the as representative of a source of heat. It

2'0 thermally expanded condition of the heated is used in the present case for initially charge. More especially it is an object of heating the coil 3 when the engine is cold, 70 the invention to provide for the vaporizaso that the fuel initially flowing through tion of liquid fuels of low volatility such said coil to the engine will be suiiiciently as kerosene and related fuels without crackvaporized by such heating to enable the infr them or roducin in the resulting mixengine to take u its combustion c cle.

s P g n P Y ture what is known as free carbon and which When the burner-head or Whatever source 75 has a deleterious effect on the engine struc- 0f preliminary heat that may be used, is ture and its general efficiency. The prinapplied to the exterior of the coil 3 aS in ciple of the invention as will presently apthe present case it is to be understood as pear, is susceptible of application to vaceasing its heating function when the enporizer apparatus in a variety 0f forms,v all gine is in its normal or working condition. 80

of which are intended to be included within The exhaust gas from the engine is conthe claims appended hereto, ducted 1n Whole or in part, `from the engine In the accompanying drawing: exhaust manlfOld 8, axially through the Fig. 1 is a general side view of a convencenter of the coil 3 and out throu h the tional 4type of internal combustion engine exhaust pipe 9 and the coil is so ormed .85

having the invention applied to it; that the exhaust passage through it is iso- Fig. 2 is an enlarged scale longitudinal lated from the spaceexterioi` to the coil section of the vaporizing passage; Within the Haine box 5, that is to say, the

so Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of a modi-` coiled tube itself forms part of the exhaust fication .of the vaporizer of F ig. 2; gas passa e, the spires of the tubing being a0 Fig. 4 is a top plan of Fig. 2 with the exin mutua contact for. this purpose. But haust pipe connection removed; other ways of associating the exhaust gas Figs. 5 and 6 are longitudinal sections of passage with the intake passage may also further modifications of the vaporizer; and be used as will presently appear.

Figs. 7 and 8 are plan views, partly in Flow of exhaust gas within the `helix 3 as ab section, of modifications of the entering above described wii obviously heat only the spii'es of the vaporizers of the preceding inner side of the curved fuel passage and the gures. v outer side of said passage will not be heated thereby, except indirectly by conduction through the metal of the tubing, with the result that the outer side of the coil of tubing will be kept at a lower temperature. The fuel mixture may be understood to consist ef air and liquid fuel particles together with some vapor of the fuel (more or less, in proportion to the volatility "off the fuel used at the entering temperature at the carburetor)- It may for example have the same characteristics as the fuel mixture delivered by the carburetors in ordinary automobile use. By reason of the inertia and centrifugal effect of passage through the curved tube, the liquid particles in the mixture will impinge and collect first upon the outer wall of the curved passage. but will presently form into a liquid stream flowing along the inner side of the passage` this being in accordance with the principle of separation of liquid from gases disclosed in my prior Patent No. 1,306,003, dated June 10, 1919. In consequence of this phenomenon, the liquid component of the entering charge selects a path of flow along and in contacty with the highly heated inner Wall of the coil or vaporizing passage 3, while the air com. ponent flows along the outer side of such passage which, as above stated, is preferably kept relatively cool, either by being left exposed to atmosphere as indicated in Fig.l 5 for example, or by being provided With heat radiating fins as shown in Fig. 6 for example, or merely by not being heated at all. In the case of the coil enclosed in a pre-heater as described for Fig. l. the burner head 6 might be employed to blow cold air instead of. flame against the outside ofthe coil when the engine is in operation and as a means of cooling the air component of the charge." It is desirable thatthe air in the vaporizing passage be kept cool and that the liquid be heated as highly as will suilice to evaporate it and no higher and for this purpose an exhaust valve 10 is shown provided in the exhaust pipe connection to the coil for the purpose of regulating the flow through the latter. For the purpose of obtaining an adequately high temperature in the interior of the coil when the engine is idling or running on a.reduced or minimum fuel supply, it is also sometimes desirable and useful to augment and concentrate the exhaust gas temperature by relatively restricting the iiow passage within the coil as for example by introducing therein a double ended body such as shown at 11 in Fig. 3. This will tend to create a local high gas velocity contiguous to the inner wall of the helical vaporizing passage but without appreciably choking the escape of the exhaust and various other shapes and means may be used to create or maintain a requisite heattransfer to the liquid stream in the vaporizing passage.

By thus heating the liquid in the presence of the-air with which it is to be mixed when burned, but without directly heating the air.

itself, I have discovered that a combustible fuel mixture is rapidly and eifectually formed, having a very low ultimate temperature measured at its entrance to the engine manifold and furthermore, that complex liquid fuels may thus be safely and satisfactorily va-porized by the application to them of a degree of hea-t that would otherwise be certain to impair their combustion utility. For example the apparatus herein described is Well adapted to develop a dry and in every way suitable gaseous mixture of kerosene and air having an inlet temperature as low as 200D F. with a corresponding ly high efficiency for the engine.

For some conditions I prefer to pass the entire air component of the char e, through the vaporizing passage and in t e presence of all the liquid component, so that the entire fuel mixture thus passes through the heated coil and I have shown this arrangement in Fig. l, but while this arrangement is preferred as just stated it will be apparent that the principle of the invention is not confined thereto, since less than the whole of the air component aids in keeping down the ultimate temperature and avoids destructive distillation of the liquid.

The vaporizing passage may conveniently be of circular cross sectionl as illustrated (a form in which the width of the cross section abdojacent the exterior ofthe helix and the width of the cross section adjacentthe in' terior axial passage through the helix are each less than the maximum width of the cross section measured transversely of the flow and parallel with the axis of the helix), or of any other contour that will provide, induce or maintain the described relation of separate contacting How streams, whereby the liquid lmay be highly heated in the presence of relatively cooler air. It is desirable to this end that the air stream be of compact rather than extended section and this effect is attained by the vaporizing passages herein illustrated. The said ssage should be long enough to accommo ate the particular kind of fuel used and the heat available for vaporizing it. Its wall should be as thin as consistent with durability in order to facilitate the prompt transfer of heat. By way of example, I have found that for Ford automobile and similar engines, a one-inch tube wound into a helix of from three or four to seven turns and having an inside diameter of approximately two and one-half or three inches` provides a suitable vaporizer.

In Fig. 5 I have illustrated an arrangement of vaporizing passage whereby the exhaust gases from the engine heat the iirst or lower spire of the coil ou bothA sides. The lower part of the coil is the part which first lll) side wall of the coil and for this reason this spire is heated on the outside even though the effect of doing so may also be to raise the temperature somewhat of the air component. This degree of temperature increase is not however considered appreciable in view 0f the subsequent treatment of the mixture in this form. The lower spire marked 3, is encasedi in a box 12 leading to the exhaust pipe 9. The llame tube of a burner-head 6 may be connected to the same box discharging into the same exhaust pipe, for vaporizing the initial fuel charge by heating the said s ire 3B.

In Figs. 7 and 8 l)have shown forms of entering spires designed to establish the liquid into stream form initially on the inner side of the curved vaporizing paage and so that it will at no time flow along the outer wall. In Fig. 8 the mixture from the carburetor enters an enlargement or bowl in the first spire through a short introduction tube 13. By giving the bowl and the tube proper relative dimensions, the liquid fuel particles by their momentum are caused to im inge on the opposite vwall 14 of the bow -shaped chamber there forming the liquid stream, while the air immediately takes u its course along the outer wall. ln Fig.` the same effect is designed to be produced, although the .separation in this case ,may not be initiallyso prompt nor so well defined.

Claims- 1. Vaporizing apparatus comprising a helical vaporizlng paage and means for producing a flow of mixed air and liquid fuel therethrough, said passage having a curvilinear cross-section, the length of the passage and the velocity of flow being such that the liquid fuel separates'from the air and travels along the'inner side of the passage, and means for applying heat to the inner walls of the helix to directly heat the collected liquid flowing therein to vaporize the saine. ,p

2. Vaporizing apparatus comprising a helical vaporizing passage and means for producing a flow of mixed air and liquid fuel therethrough, said passage having a curvilinear cross-section, the length of the passage and the velocity `of flow being such that the liquid fuel separates from the air and travels along the inner side of the passage, means for applying heat to the inner walls of the helix to directly heat the collected flowing liquid therein to vaporize the same, and a medium of lower temperature outside the helix.

3. Vaporizing apparatus for internal combustion engines comprising a helix providing a helical passage and an interior pas'- sage axial o the helix, means delivering a mixture of liquid fuel and air to one end of the helical passage, the other end of said passage being adapted to be connected to the engine intake ports, and means for heating the interior axial passage to vaporizethe liquid fuel, the helical passage having a. cross area the width of which adjacent the interior passage is less than its maximum width measured transversely of the flow and parallel with the axis of thehelix.

4. vThe combination of an engine fuel vaporizer comprising a helical coil of tubing, the spaces between the spires of the tube being closed against escape of gas therethrough, thereby forming an axial passage, means connectingthe engine exhaustfports to one end of the axial passage within the helix so that exhaust as may pass therethrough, means for delivering a mixture of liquid fuel and air into one end of the helical passage, and means connecting the other end of 'the helical passage to the engineinlet ports.

5,. The combination of claim 4 with means for creating al local high flow velocity of exhaust gas contiguous to the helical fuel and air passage.

6. The combination of an engine fuel vaporizer comprising a thin walled passage of helical shape, means delivering a mixture of liquid fuel and air into said passage, means whereby the engine exhaust gas heats interior walls vof `said helical passage and means for heating exterior walls of said pass when starting the engine in operation.

'. The combination ofa'helix providing a helical passage-of curvilinear cross-sectlon' and a plurality-of turns, means for delivering a mixture of liquid fuel andA air to one end of lsaid passage, the opposi'teend being adapted for connection to the engine intake ports, means for` heating the interior of the helix by the engine exhaust gas, the exterior of the helix being unhea'ted thereby, and means for heating the helix to start the engine.

8. The combination of a helix providing a helical passage of curvilinear cross sec-` tion and a plurality of turns, means for delivering a mixture of liquid fuel and air to one end of. said passage, said end being provided with an enlarged chamber to receive said mixture and an entrance tube to the chamber arranged to deposit the liquid fue-l on a wall of the chamber from whence the chamber delivers the deposited liquid fuel to the inner side of the helical passage, the opposite end of the helical passage being adapted for connection to the engine intake ports, and means for heatin the interior of the helix by the engine ex aust gas, the exterior of the helix being unheated thereby.

9. Vaporizing apparatus for internal combusion engines comprising a helix providing a helical passageand an interior passage axial of the helix, means delivering av mixcross area, the width of which adjacent the vture of liquid fuel and air to one end of the exterior of the helix is less than its maxihelical passage, the other end of said pasmum width measured transversely of the l" sage being adapted to be connected to the enflow and parallel with the axis of the helix.

5 gine intake ports, and means for heating In testimony whereof, I have signed this thenterior axial passage tovaporize the specification. liquid fuel, the helicall passage having a JOHN GOOD. 

